View Cluster Control/Indicator as Icon on Front Panel (sub VI's)

[DNicholls]

I make a lot of use of clusters to pass data into and out of sub vi's.  I keep everything typedef'd and the clusters can often grow to be rather large on the front panel which makes navigating the front panel quite difficult.  I usually have maybe 2 or 3 other controls and indicators that are not within the cluster.

Is it possible to view the cluster as an icon in a similar way to the block diagram?

[Yamaeda]

No.

Apart from dragging them offscreen, turning them invisible or placing them on a separate tab. Do you need to have them on the front panel at all, or can the wire keep the info and you only show selected pieces?

/Y

[DNicholls]

Well I need to be able to connect to them as inputs and outputs to the sub vi.  One way around would be to use references to the variable but that introduces overhead in the block diagran to reference and dereference etc.

I'd like to know how other people deal with these clusters.  Maybe they don't use them and my programming style isn't good?

I think it's the same in principal to using a structure in C.

[RavensFan]

Generally, the front panels of those subVI's are never meant to be seen, so just arranging things neatly and then not worrying about it is what I do.

You could also make sure that Size to Fit is not checked on the cluster and then shrink the boundary in effectively hiding a lot of the elements.  But I don't think that is a good idea.

[Omar_II]

Turn your cluster into an object?

[PaulG.]

---

@DNicholls wrote:

I'd like to know how other people deal with these clusters.  Maybe they don't use them and my programming style isn't good?

---

I frequently have the same issue. I use tab controls. Often.

[0utlaw]

Hello DNichols,

I recommend placing the cluster(s) in question partway off-screen, with the label displayed.  If you really need to minimize the footprint of the cluster front panel object, set AutoSizing to "None" via the right-click menu and resize as needed, but keep in mind that the FP object is now more-or-less useless to future developers except for ease of clicking to link to the connector pane.  Since you're type-defining everything, accessing or viewing the contents of the cluster might not matter much, though.

Redefining your architecture is probably not a priority right now, but you might also want to consider using classes in the future, as others have suggested.

Regards,